With Adam Larsson out, Edmonton Oilers have a chance to make huge bet on puck-moving - Edmonton Journal

Jumat, 04 Oktober 2019

With Adam Larsson out, Edmonton Oilers have a chance to make huge bet on puck-moving - Edmonton Journal

It’s been apparent for years now that the major problem with the Edmonton Oilers defence is a lack of puck-movers.

For a brief and shining moment in 2016-17 that issue was rectified when Andrej Sekera and Oscar Klefbom were both healthy and at the top of their games, both leading a top pairing unit with good-to-great skating and passing. But things haven’t been the same for the Oilers since Ryan Getzlaf injured Sekera in the 2017 playoffs.

For the past two season, the Oilers defence was one of the worst, if not the single worst, group of puck-movers in the NHL.

But with Adam Larsson now out for six-to-eight weeks with a fractured right fibula, that dynamic could change.

For all the grit he brought to the defence, Larsson seemed to regress as a puck-mover during his time in Edmonton.

Maybe the NHL just sped up one or two warp factors these past two seasons.

Or maybe a new breed of young, flashy, quick and skilled d-men are simply making the old breed stay-at-home d-men look slow.

For example, against Vancouver on Wednesday night, Edmonton won the game 3-2, but mainly due to goalie Mike Smith’s heroics. Edmonton had just seven Grade A scoring chances to 14 for Vancouver.

At even strength, Larsson and his so-called “shutdown” partner Darnell Nurse were out for not one Grade A scoring chance for, but six against between them. With Nurse on the ice at even strength, Edmonton directed 10 shots at the Vancouver net, but had 29 directed at their own. That wasn’t all on Nurse and Larsson, and it’s also true Larsson was playing with a fractured bone in his leg, but the pair struggled.

Meanwhile smaller, younger and more mobile Vancouver d-men like Quinn Hughes and Troy Stecher were charging around, moving the puck, making plays, making passes, and generally keeping the Oilers on the run.

Do Edmonton have players like Hughes and Stecher who can move the puck smartly and adroitly, repeatedly helping their team to advance the puck up ice?

Defenceman Joel Persson skates at Edmonton Oilers training camp in Edmonton on Sept. 13, 2019. Larry Wong / Postmedia, file

Perhaps not one as quick las the super skilled Hughes, though Evan Bouchard put up a massive number of points per game in major junior. Bouchard is more slick with his passing than his skating, but he can certainly advance the puck. With Larsson out, Bouchard was recalled from the American Hockey League, though it’s unlikely he’ll actually make the trip to Edmonton if Joel Persson is declared fit to play.

But Persson, 25, is another player who showed strong passing skills in the pre-season before he hurt his shoulder.

Meanwhile, Ethan Bear, another mobile and sharp-passing young d-man, has been the surprise of the Edmonton Oilers season to date, impressing most everybody with his newfound agility and clever demonstrations of hockey IQ and puck-moving skill.

That gives Edmonton three sharp-passing young d-men on the right side, with Caleb Jones filling that same void on the left side.

Of course, Edmonton has had nothing but pain and waste rushing young d-men to the NHL, with Justin Schultz being Exhibit A for all that has gone wrong force-feeding a player into the Top 4. The rookie d-men should not be asked to play the hardest of minutes. It won’t work. If Edmonton is to get through this period without Larsson, it’s almost certainly going to need Kris Russell and Matt Benning to step-up as the shut-down pairing on the team. It’s a tall order to ask them to take endless d-zone faceoffs against tough competition, but they’re likely the best bet to get the job done.

Meanwhile Oilers coach Dave Tippett can employ two attacking pairings in Darnell Nurse and Bear, Oscar Klefbom and Persson or Bouchard.

Edmonton has gone to a strategy of more aggressive puck-moving, including trying passes in the d-zone up the middle of the ice. With strong passing players like Klefbom, Bear and Persson on the ice, I give that strategy a much better chance of paying off.

That’s what I’d like to see anyway. Lets’s see how forward lines with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, James Neal, Joakim Nygard, Zack Kassian and Alex Chiasson can do when they’re teamed up with clever and able puck-movers like Klefbom, Bear and Persson. Nurse also has his strong moments skating with and moving the puck.

Going with two young puck-movers in the line-up might not be the blood bath in the Edmonton d-zone that some of you will undoubtedly fear.

It might even be good, perhaps even eye-opening. I, for one, have seen quite enough of Oilers d-men in rote fashion firing the puck up the boards, only to get picked off by the opposition, who rapidly mount another attack. It’s time for a new plan with new players.

P.S. This in from Reid Wilkens of CHED at Oilers practice, with Bear sitting out for now because he was assigned to Bakersfield, but available for recall ASAP:

#Oilers lines today: Draisaitl-McDavid-Kassian Nygard-RNH-Neal Chiasson-Khaira-Archibald Granlund-Cave-Haas Jurco and P. Russell extra… Bottom 8 shuffling around as practice goes on. I wouldn’t write anything in stone, unless you have a very powerful writing utensil.

#Oilers D: Klefbom-Persson Nurse-Russell Manning-Benning Bear not on the ice after being assigned to AHL yesterday.

P.P.S. The Oilers recalled Bear and William Lagesson from the AHL and returned Evan Bouchard.